The first National Consultative Conference of the ANC was held at Morogoro, Tanzania, from 25 April to 1 May 1969. The conference has become known as the `Morogoro Conference`. Oliver Tambo summed up the conference with these words:

"Close Ranks! This is the order to our people; our youth; the army; to each Umkhonto we Sizwe militant; to all our many supporters the world over. This is the order to our leaders; to all of us. The order that comes from this conference is: Close Ranks and Intensify the Armed Struggle!"

The Conference was attended by over seventy delegates from various centres representing ANC branches, units of Umkhonto we Sizwe - the ANC`s military wing - leader of the Indian and Coloured peoples and the revolutionary working class movement.

The Conference was opened at a public session by GeorgeMagombe, Executive Secretary of the OAU Liberation Committee.

The ANC is in an alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Each Alliance partner is an independent organisation with its own constitution, membership and programmes. The Alliance is founded on a common commitment to the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution, and the need to unite the largest possible cross-section of South Africans behind these objectives.